Tuesday, June 30, 2015

State to examine U of L Foundation's management

Kentucky State Auditor Adam Edelen announced Thursday that his office
will examine the University of Louisville Foundation, which has been
criticized for giving millions of dollars of deferred compensation and
other pay to university President James Ramsey and his top
administrators.

Ramsey last month denounced calls by several trustees for a such a review, saying they represented a challenge to his integrity.

But
Dr. Robert Hughes, the chairman of the board of trustees and the
foundation, said in a statement that the university "looks forward to
working with the auditor's office" to review the relationship between
the board and the foundation.

Edelen said in a news
release that the office would conduct an examination into the governance
and oversight of the foundation, which manages the school's $1.1
billion endowment.

"The
foundation is critically important to the university, but it must be
fully transparent," Edelen said. He also said the university's board of
trustees "must have primacy" in governing university activities funded
by the foundation. He said the review will take months to complete.

The
Courier-Journal reported in March that Ramsey, who is also president of
the foundation, had received $2.4 million in deferred compensation in
2012-13, while that year Provost Shirley Willihnganz got $1.8 million
and Chief of Staff Kathleen Smith got $1.3 million.

WDRB.com
later reported that some of the deferred compensation had been
backdated and credited with fictional investment returns, that
Willihnganz and Smith also had been paid by a separate nonprofit created
by the foundation, and that Ramsey had received $2.5 million from the
foundation in 2008.

In a special meeting last month,
Ramsey angrily denounced calls for a review of the foundation. But
several trustees said it was necessary. They included Steve Campbell,
who said he hadn't gotten information about compensation he'd requested a
year earlier, and board Treasurer Larry Benz, who suggested the
foundation has grown so complex — it has more than $1 billion in assets
and controls 10 corporations — that its processes and procedures should
be audited.

Trustee Craig Greenberg on Thursday applauded
Edelen's decision to review the foundation's management processes and
said he expects "everyone at the university will fully cooperate with
his work."

Edelen said in the release that Ramsey had
presided over a period of "significant growth and achievement," but "I
have heard from dozens of business and community leaders who believe
that a review by my office will be a constructive exercise, resulting in
easing tensions and a fact-based path for moving forward."

He
also said that given the university's dramatic growth and enhanced
academic reputation, the review is important to ensure the board of
trustees is in a position "to meet its statutory and fiduciary
obligations as the governing body of the institution."

Dissident
members of the board have stepped up their criticisms in recent months.
In April, citing news reports on the deferred compensation, Greenberg
and fellow trustee Steve Wilson called for the foundation, which
operates independently, to be placed under the supervision of the board.

Ramsey
denounced that proposal, saying it would "kill" donations to the
university because the trustees are appointed by the governor and donors
would consider the process politicized. The foundation, which is also
headed by Ramsey, raises money through private donations.

According
to the foundation's tax report filed last month, in 2013 it paid $1.86
million to Ramsey, $663,038 to Willihnganz and $319,146 to Smith.

The
board of trustees has hired a Chicago consulting firm, Verisight Inc.,
to produce a "competitive market review" of Ramsey's pay and that of
five other administrators. The report is to be presented to the board at
its meeting next month.

The company is being paid
$23,000 to review the compensation of the university's three executive
vice presidents, including its provost and head of health affairs, as
well as its senior vice president for finance and general counsel, along
with Ramsey.

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On the campaign trail...with my wife Rita

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Faculty Senate Chair

Serving as Mace Bearer during the Inauguration of Michael T. Benson as EKU's 12th president.

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EDF 203 in EKU's one-room schoolhouse.

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Lecturing on the history of Berea College to Berea faculty and staff, 2014.

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One in a long series of meetings. 2016

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